Hidden Gems

Ron, who's young, slight, and privileged, is sentenced to prison on marijuana charges. For whatever reason, he brings out paternal feelings in an 18-year prison veteran, Earl Copan, who takes Ron under his wing. The film explores the nature of that relationship, Ron's part in Earl's gang, and the way Ron deals with aggressive cons intent on assault and rape. There's casual racism, too, in the prisoners and the guards, a strike called by Black prisoners, and the nearly omnipresence of hard drugs. Ron's lawyer is working on getting Ron out quickly, Earl has a shot at parole, and death seems to be waiting in the next cell. Will prison turn Ron into an animal?

Welcome to The Great Happiness Space: Rakkyo Café. The club's owner, Issei (22), has a staff of twenty boys all under his training to become the top escorts of Osaka's underground love scene. During their training, they learn how to dress, how to talk, how to walk, and most importantly, how to fake relationships with the girls who become their source of income. Join us as Osaka's number one host boy takes us on a journey through the complex and heartrenching world of love for sale in the Japanese underground.

A man sees his life changed forever when his fiancee shoots herself. Baffled, he wants by all means to obtain such a weapon of destruction and he finds himself caught in the middle of a violent group of young vicious punks. They first beat him severely and then he seeks revenge with his fist, then with a gun. Everything from then on is a complete downward spiral.

A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Tajuki, on the subway. Tajuki is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Tajuki might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.

Looking around for a suitable place to hold up, Andreas stumbles into a tailor's shop. What was supposed to last only a few minutes ends up being a bizarre afternoon for three men: the tragicomic of the less-than-expert robber, the cranky tailor and a customer - a know-it-all who drives the other two crazy. The mood constantly shifts, and the tables keep turning among the threesome. A black comedy with a twist.

Ex-mob boss Christopher Walken is kidnapped by a group of four kids in a haphazard attempt at paying the ransom for another, separate kidnapping. Complexities arise as the group cannot seem to do anything right.

Three clueless high school nerds, best friends for years, call themselves the "Mystery Team" and solve neighborhood crimes - such as who poked a finger in a pie cooling on a window ledge - cute at seven but foolish at 18. Then, one morning, a young girl pays them a dime to find out who murdered her parents the night before and took her grandmother's ring. Using inept methods, the team lucks onto the trail of the bad guys. Can they bumble to success and a renewed reputation? And what about coming of age?

This is a mockumentary within a mockumentary. The ensemble cast is a Who's Who of modern filmmaking, from Werner Herzog, independent director (Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Grizzly Man (2005), Rescue Dawn (2006)) playing himself directing a documentary, to cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (of the Blade movies) playing himself, to Sound Recorder/Mixer extraordinaire Russell Williams II (of Independent Lens (1999), Moesha (1996), Training Day (2001)) playing himself, to.. well you get the idea. Throw in the legend of Nessie and you've got a totally hilarious thriller mockumentary directed by Zak Penn. Make sure you watch the commentary with the Director and cast members, which continues the fiction of the movie. It's brilliant.

Wayne Dobie is a shy police photographer who saves the life of crime boss Frank Milo. Greatful, Milo insists on being Wayne's friend, offering him the companionship of "Glory", one of his employees. Wayne is thus in a difficult situation: he can't be seen to be fraternising with criminals, and he's unsure about how to deal with Glory.

Can strangers connect? Can casual sex become something else? In Santiago, Daniela and Bruno, both about 30, meet at a party, go to another and end up in a hotel. We join them there as passion becomes talk: do they know each other's name, have they been to hotels with others? There's some playfulness, more sex, a bath, pillow fights, condom problems, stories from their past, conflict. Each gets a phone call, each intrudes on the other's privacy. As the night wanes, will there be anything else?

Main character of this movie is Rene Rupnik, a former math teacher. He is forty years old and lives together with his mother in a desolate block of flats. Ever since his early youth women with big breasts have fascinated him, because they symbolise a kind of earth mother to him. He has never had an especially close relationship with his own mother; she was too 'bony' for him. Object of Rene's fantasy is the actress Senta Berger, to him everything a woman should be. Standing by the blackboard and explaining the mathematical laws of sine and cosine ('sinus' is bosom in Latin), Rene sings the praises of the female curves and those of Santa Berger in particular. Filmmaker Ulrich Seidl let the former teacher speak freely about his obsessions and desires, intercutting his monologues with scenes from the protagonist's day-to-day life.

Where there's life, there's hope. But what happens if hope is discovered to have been laid to rest years ago? Three men trapped in their car after an accident, who find out more about each other than they would ever be willing to consider.

They say love is blind, but can it also be synthetic? This extraordinary film meets a group of lonely guys who have fallen in love with their customized, life-sized dolls.

Walter Steiner is a world-class ski jumper - he won a silver medal in the 1972 Winter Olympics - who works full-time as a carpenter. During his career, he manages to break all the greatest records in his sport, seemingly without effort. But unlike other athletes, Steiner is calm and contemplative, choosing isolation over fanfare. For Steiner, the ski jumper's flight is both a source of ecstasy and a way of facing death.